First year of IM Battleship brings unique game to SAC

Arin Bisaro | Staff Photographer
Students compete in the Battle Ship Intramural sport attempting to sink each others ships Wednesday night in the SAC pool. Alpha Sigma Tau Team 4 and The Sinkers go head to head filing each others boats as fast as they can.

The screams of battle echoed across the vast glistening waters of the Student Activity Center pool.

The last boat afloat is the winner.

The first annual Battleship Tournament was a success as 12 teams of four attempted to stay above water while dumping water from the pool, using their hands and plastic buckets, into opponents' boats.

Assistant aquatics director Darin Masselink said the idea for the tournament and official rules came from similar games played by schools around the county and videos posted on YouTube. Not everything went according to plan in its first year, but Masselink hopes to have some of these problems smoothed out for next year's tournament.

He said he was happy with how everything turned out.

"It was great to see this many people on the pool deck and watching the tournament," Masselink said.

One of the biggest rule modifications made it illegal for participants to scoop water from their canoes. This rule was changed in order to speed up the already lengthy time of the matches.

"Sometimes when you try something for the first time, you have to modify (it)," said Assistant director of intramural sports Scott George. "We had to kind of learn on the fly."

The spectacle drew a fair number of curious onlookers, who were able to see the action through the windows that overlook the SAC pool deck.

Initially, the tournament was supposed to take place in the Rose Arena pool, but the location was changed in order to be more visible to students.

Sarah Warden, a Frankenmuth native, works at the SAC and was a member of the winning team, "The Sinkers."

"They put signs up all over the SAC," Warden said, "but my friends thought we were actually playing the Battleship board game."

In addition to signs in the SAC, University Recreation intern Kyle Wallace said the event was promoted on televisions in the University Center and through the use of the intramural list service.

Everything that was needed to participate was provided by University Recreation. This included large canoes, team flags and plastic buckets, which were used to scoop water out of the pool and into opposing teams boats.

"There were 16 slots available and 12 signed up, so were happy about the turnout," Wallace said. "The only thing that people have to bring is themselves and a they'll have a good time"